PHM-Exch> Civil Society Statement on the draft Joint Action Plan for Women’s and Children’s Health

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: rajat khosla rajat.khosla at gmail.com

  Please find below the civil society statement on UNSG's Joint Action Plan
on women's and children's health. This was issued on 30 June 2010. It is
also available at http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/IOR40/013/2010/en



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*Civil Society Statement on the draft Joint Action Plan for Women’s and
Children’s Health*

* *The draft *Joint Action Plan for Women’s and Children’s Health: Investing
in Our Common Future* put forward by the UN Secretary-General for the
High-level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly on the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) in September 2010 focuses on the need to accelerate
efforts to promote the health of women and children, which is key to
ensuring progress on *all* the MDGs.



The draft *Joint Action Plan* aims at ensuring a coordinated and joint
effort by the international community to deliver vital healthcare services
for women and children who continue to face the greatest barriers in
realising their right to health.



As civil society organisations working on the issue of women’s and girls’
health from a wide variety of perspectives and in a range of contexts, we
would like to highlight the lack of clear focus on human rights of women and
girls in the *Joint Action Plan*.   We consider human rights as essential
for ensuring that global, regional, national and local efforts achieve
equitable and sustainable progress on *all* MDGs, in particular Goal 3 (on
gender equality and women’s empowerment) and Goal 5 (on maternal health).



Women, particularly women living in poverty, continue to face a range of
barriers (financial, legal, social and other) to accessing the healthcare
services they need. Difficulties in accessing services are closely linked to
state failure to guarantee non-discrimination, equal access to care, and
other dimensions of the human rights to life and health. The draft *Joint
Action Plan* does not reflect this reality and does not adequately reflect
states’ obligations to realise the right to health and other human rights of
women and girls. We believe that a human rights-centred approach to
strategies, policies and programmes aimed at realising the MDGs will enhance
their effectiveness.



Women and girls across the world are subjected to gender discrimination and
other human rights violations, including harmful practices and gender-based
violence. They are also frequently subject to multiple forms of
discrimination, for example because of their race, caste, ethnicity,
disability, socio-economic or marital status.



Failure to tackle discrimination and ensure accountability in efforts to
meet all of the MDGs will undermine progress.  This was recognised by the
General Assembly at the 2005 World Summit,  by the UN Human Rights Council
in its Resolution 11/8 (2009) with regard to preventable maternal mortality
and morbidity, and by the Secretary-General in his report *Keeping the
Promise *for the September UN Summit.



We welcome the inclusion of an accountability framework in the draft *Joint*
*Action Plan*. However, the framework must ensure that states’ health
policies, strategies, programmes - and the implementation of these - are
consistent with human rights standards.  In particular, the *Plan* should
promote accountability for maternal health interventions through a series of
measures including:

-          Monitoring of systemic failures leading to maternal mortality;

-          Promoting equitable access to emergency obstetric care;

-          Establishing grievance and redress procedures; and

-          Promoting the improvement of birth and death registrations.



The draft *Joint Action Plan* calls for national health plans to be based on
an integrated package of priority health interventions to improve access to
health services for women and children. Realising women’s right to health
requires states and donors to invest in health interventions that are proven
to have maximum impact in preventing and reducing maternal mortality and
morbidity. The UN Millennium Task Force on Maternal and Child Health and the
Global Consensus on Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health have both pointed to
the importance of skilled attendance at childbirth, access to emergency
obstetric care and referral systems, as well as improved access to family
planning and access to safe abortion.  These services, as well as a plan to
address inequities in the enjoyment of them, should be front and centre of
any policy to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity.



We are convinced that systematic integration of the human rights dimensions
of women’s and children’s health within the *Joint Action Plan* is vital to
ensuring meaningful and sustainable progress on all MDGs. Such integration
should reflect the relevant provisions contained in international law and
standards, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women,
and Convention on the Rights of the Child.



We call on the Secretary-General and UN member states to ensure that
the *Action
Plan*:



   - Reaffirms, in line with the 2005 World Summit Outcome, that gender
   equality and the promotion and protection of the full enjoyment of all human
   rights and fundamental freedoms for all are essential to the achievement of
   the MDGs.



   - Reaffirms the key principles identified in the 2010 Office of the High
   Commissioner for Human Rights study on preventable maternal mortality and
   morbidity and human rights: accountability, participation, transparency,
   empowerment, sustainability, international cooperation and
   non-discrimination.



·         Recognises girls’ and women’s sexual and reproductive rights,
including universal access to reproductive, sexual and maternal health.



·         Recognises the importance both of collecting data on the Emergency
Obstetric Care indicators outlined in the *UN Guidelines for Monitoring the
Availability and Use of Obstetric Services* (as revised) and of building the
capacity of states to measure these indicators.



·         Recognises the need for stakeholders to commit to ensuring that
their actions to improve women’s and children’s health are consistent with
their human rights obligations, including the obligations to ensure
non-discrimination, gender equality, participation and accountability.



·         Promotes actions to:

·         Eliminate all barriers to access to maternal health services,
including user fees and other financial barriers, and third party consent
requirements for sexual and reproductive related health care;

·         Reform laws and policies that discriminate against women, for
example those that criminalise abortion.

-ENDS

*This statement is signed by:*

Action Canada for Population and Development

Amnesty International

Center for Reproductive Rights

Economic and Social Rights Centre (Hakijamii)

Human Rights Watch

International Commission of Jurists

International Initiative on Maternal Mortality and Human Rights

International Planned Parenthood Federation

Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative
.

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